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Wow!  This isn’t a post - more a blog entry.  But. What a first working week of the new year!  It looks like 2019 is almost  sorted then! Not sure where to start.  Bit pleased.  And a bit scared. Yep, definitely a bit scared. At my age!!  

Last Saturday I was followed around by a TV crew from the biggest Arts programme in Brazil.  They are doing a half-hour feature on Literary London, and it turns out we’re going to be their main ‘hook’. 

Monday. A top promoter phones me on the day the Edinburgh Festival booking opens and says “Same venue as last year?” Huh? Last year was really tough. I hadn’t really thought much about going back.  But then a voice, which I later realise is mine, says, ‘No, we need a bigger playing space than last year. I’ve got this comedy about 4 kids growing up on a council estate in Birmingham.  It’s called PALS.  And I think the same four actors should perform in a new version of Romeo and Juliet too, because it’ll be rough, violent and sexy and increase access to Shakespeares and there are some (very) tenuous similarities with PALS. No.. I .. er.. I haven’t actually adapted R and J yet. But we should do them both in rep too, one performance every other day like we did last year with Henry V - Lion of England and Hamlet- Horatio’s Tale.  There’s a pause. “Can you afford 4 actors?”  (No, of course I can’t, says this voice in my head, but I don’t speak those words) The promoter continues “And a comedy set in Birmingham?  Birmingham? Nothing is set in Birmingham today apart from the Peaky Blinders and that’s mostly made in Manchester”  I bristle slightly on behalf of my home city, then realise he’s probably right.  But I’m determined to bring Birmingham to Edinburgh.  That was on Monday...

Tuesday, I worked out that taking Birmingham to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was going to cost £30k. Yep. Upfront.  If it works artistically, the subsequent tour will take 24 months to repay that amount.  We need donations and sponsorship.  And then...

Wednesday. A lovely bunch of people at the biggest kept secret members club in Soho ask me to head up a new literary festival.  When’s the best time, they ask. October. 14th. Fits in with all the national festivals.  I know this because I’d done a lot of research last year because I wanted to do a literary festival in #Fitzrovia but couldn’t find the funds.  Companies might sponsor Soho easier than Fitzrovia, but it’s still going to cost around £20k.  In sponsorship. Because we need Childrens’ Poetry, a new book written by anyone who wants to have a go based on 24 hours in #Soho and ‘Poetry Commandos’ in the streets and restaurants.  As well as the usual festival stuff.  They look at me and nod sagely.  “That sounds good. It'll be tough, but we should be able to raise that. You can now officially be our Creative Director.”  Wow!  A title. Sadly, it won’t help pay my bills much, but it’d be SOOOO great to make it happen.

Thursday - I’m approached by a new theatre company about directing a new production.  It sounds really interesting, and a good fee, but I think the dates will clash!

Friday - we agree to take on a new tour booker to sell Maverick’s productions nationally.  I instantly decide that is what Maverick is going to do now.  We started to do this in the early days.  But then the job in Birmingham in the ‘90’s was to create an environment for a fringe and then bring in new audiences to that fringe, which I think we have done.  The job now will be to bring new audiences into theatres. Which I think we can do.

Next week..?

Back to the Future...?

Rob Stanson, our first 'Henry V - Lion of England'

It's a bit depressing realising that I'm going back 20 years. Next year it will be 20 years since I presented 'Teechers' and 'Henry V - Lion of England' at the mac in Birmingham. I booked three nights but didn't have the guts to put my Henry on for all three nights so my mate directed the Godber classic. And now I'm doing it again, but this time in London.

Us, at the launch of
A Ghost of A Chance.

It has occurred to me though that every time I've written something, things happened. 'Henry' has toured and went the the USA. A Ghost of A Chance not only attracted some stellar creatives, it also won the Guinness Award through the National Theatre. PALS became our local hit, going from nothing to sell out runs in the space of a few weeks. And this time I'm producing in London, arguably the world capital of the arts.

Ed Morris, the latest

 Henry V - Lion  of England.

Contemplating my return to Pub Theatre!

So maybe its not too depressing going back a bit. John Lennon said about the Beatles reforming, "you can't reheat a soufflé." No you can't John, but maybe you can cook another one and try and make it tastier. So 2012 will be a big year and nothing to do with the Olympics, because I'm gonna write me next new play and see what happens. I'm shall try a similar approach to PALS. PALS was in my head for about five years and this new one, Ron and Juliet, has been around for a similar time. It's due in July. And talking of the Olympics, it has a five-a-side footy match in the second half... Game On!

It's enough to make you weep!

I've spent most of the day scanning production photos to upload to the Maverick web site. It's been strangely moving. Looking back at 13 years of actors, directors and technicians, all working for very little money in the upstairs room of a pub that no one had heard of.
The one picture I find particularly moving is a photograph of the original PALS cast. It's not a set up, but a photo that was taken at the end of an actual show. And the tears are real. Every night, without fail, the cast were crying for real. It was dynamite. In the small upstairs room of the Billesley Pub there was a unique, raw collective outpouring of grief and emotion from every audience. PALS is about 4 kids growing up in Birmingham. I won't give the end of the play away, because it's obvious we've got to do it again. The only time I've experienced that collective power has been at the end of Les Misereables and maybe Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Good bed fellows for PALS, me thinks!

Kind of makes all the aggro worthwhile, dunnit!

Sob!